Q. Does the Cisco Transport Manager product include the required hardware?

A. No. Cisco Transport Manager is a software-only application product that is based on industry-standard, off-the-shelf Sun and PC hardware platforms.

Q. Are there different configurations for the Cisco Transport Manager server?

A. Yes, the Cisco Transport Manager server can be installed in different configurations depending on the number of nodes managed and the hardware configuration available. The Cisco Transport Manager server can be installed in small, medium, large, and high-end configurations. For further details refer to the Installation Guide for Cisco Transport Manager 8.5 at
www.cisco.com/univercd/cc/td/doc/product/rtrmgmt/optnet/ctm/ctminst/index.htm.

Additionally, during the upgrade, users can change the configuration size to the next available (that is, medium to large and large to high-end; upgrade from the small configuration to the medium configuration is not supported).

Q. Does Cisco Transport Manager 8.5 support a high availability configuration?

Q. Is Cisco Transport Manager 8.5 compatible with earlier versions of the Cisco Transport Manager client, such as Release 6.0 or Release 7.2?

A. No, all Cisco Transport Manager clients must be upgraded to the new Cisco Transport Manager 8.5 client.

Q. Can the same Cisco Transport Manager client and network element right-to-use (RTU) licenses obtained for use with earlier versions of Cisco Transport Manager be used with Release 8.5?

A. Yes, all network element and client RTU licenses that have been purchased in the past are still valid for Cisco Transport Manager 8.5 with no upgrade charge. Application (Server and Client), CORBA, and High Availability licenses must be upgraded.

Q. What warranty is included with Cisco Transport Manager 8.5?

A. Cisco Transport Manager 8.5 includes a standard software warranty from Cisco that warrants for 90 days from the date of delivery to you that (a) the media on which the software is furnished will be free of defects in materials and workmanship under normal use; and (b) the software substantially conforms to its published specifications.

Q. Is there a service contract available for Cisco Transport Manager 8.5?

A. Yes, you must purchase a Cisco Software Application Support (SAS) contract to receive access to technical assistance through the Cisco Technical Assistance Center (TAC) or Cisco.com. Cisco SAS also provides you with Cisco Transport Manager software updates (maintenance, minor) as they are made available for the duration of your contract. Current Cisco Software Application Support plus Upgrades (SASU) service contracts, which are no longer available for Cisco Transport Manager 8.5, will be valid until their expiration.

Q. Does Cisco Transport Manager 8.5 support all the configuration and provisioning features provided in the Cisco Transport Controller for the Cisco ONS Family?

Q. Is there a high availability version of Cisco Transport Manager 8.5?

A. The Cisco Transport Manager 8.5 software used in the standalone version and in the High Availability Solution is the same. For the Cisco Transport Manager High Availability Agent 2.3, both Veritas high availability clustering software and third-party hardware are needed to set up a high availability environment.

Q. Where can I obtain the Cisco Transport Manager High-Availability Agent 2.3?

A. It is included on the installation CD with Cisco Transport Manager 8.5 and also available for evaluation from your Cisco sales representative. The product part numbers are CTM-8.5-HA and CTM-8.5-HA-UPG.

Q. Is there a migration mechanism for standalone Cisco Transport Manager 7.x customers to migrate to Cisco Transport Manager 8.5 in a high availability configuration?

A. You can migrate your current standalone Cisco Transport Manager to the standalone Cisco Transport Manager 8.5, provided you follow the correct migration steps outlined in the installation guide. It is not possible to migrate from a standalone to a high availability configuration.

Q. What is the virtual IP address?

A. The virtual IP address hides or masks the physical IP addresses normally assigned to the Sun server Ethernet ports. By masking the physical IP address, all network elements, clients, and OSSs target the virtual IP address. In the event of a hardware failover, the standby UNIX server assumes this virtual IP address. Only the active UNIX server has the virtual IP address, so all entities are communicating with the same IP address.

Q. Does a high availability design affect the functionality of the Cisco Transport Manager clients, network-element access, or OSS?

A. All services and features are designed to operate identically to a standalone configuration.

Q. Can the High Availability Solution be installed on an existing standalone server?

A. No. There is no migration path from a standalone Cisco Transport Manager configuration to a high availability configuration. The Veritas File System and Volume Manager software technologies (included in Veritas Database Edition/High Availability for Oracle) need to be installed immediately after the Solaris 10 operating system is installed.

Q. What licenses will I need with Cisco Transport Manager in a high availability environment?

A. You will need to purchase the Cisco Transport Manager High Availability Agent 2.3 RTU license. When the license is purchased, all high availability documentation will be shipped to you on a CD. Please refer to Cisco.com to download the latest electronic copy of the Cisco Transport Manager release notes.

Q. Is any other Cisco software necessary, other than Cisco Transport Manager 8.5 and the Cisco Transport Manager High Availability Agent 2.3?

A. No.

Q. Is there any customization needed in the high availability environment?

A. You may wish to modify specific aspects of the high availability configuration to fit your environment, such as adding more Ethernet modules, not mirroring internal disks, or modifying steps that are documented in the Cisco Transport Manager High Availability Installation Guide.

Q. What does the Cisco Transport Manager High Availability Agent do?

A. It is a software module that monitors processes and assesses the status of the primary server to help ensure that Cisco Transport Manager is operating correctly.

Q. Will Cisco provide information on how to back up Cisco Transport Manager in a high availability environment?

A. Cisco provides an application note similar to the one provided for the Cisco Transport Manager standalone servers.

Q. What information is included in the Cisco Transport Manager High Availability Installation Guide?

A. The document discusses all the reference hardware, part numbers, diagrams, and the references to the installation instructions for all the software (Solaris, all hardware and software patches, Veritas, Oracle, Cisco Transport Manager 8.5, and Cisco Transport Manager High Availability Agent 2.3).

Q. Where can I find other documentation about the Cisco Transport Manager and High Availability Agent?

A. The complete High Availability Solution package-all documentation on the Cisco Transport Manager High Availability Agent-is available on Cisco.com at a password-protected location. After you have purchased a license to operate the Cisco Transport Manager High Availability Agent, you will receive a complete printed copy of all High Availability Solution documents and a password to access Cisco.com. This Website also contains the most up-to-date Cisco Transport Manager release notes.

Hardware Configuration

Q. Can I deviate from this reference architecture?

A. Absolutely. In fact, Cisco anticipates that you will use your own disk arrays, fiber channel adapter cards, or Sun servers. If you deviate from the Cisco referenced architecture, however, you will need to establish your own high availability support infrastructure and make sure the hardware you plan to deploy (such as disk arrays and Sun servers) is supported by Veritas.

Q. If I deploy the high availability hardware infrastructure exactly as referenced, does this ensure qualification for high availability support from Cisco?

A. The purpose of the reference architecture is to provide a template from which to build the high availability infrastructure. You will still be responsible for establishing your own high availability support from Cisco, as well as from the third-party vendor whose components you deploy.

Q. What is RAID?

A. RAID stands for Redundant Array of Independent Disks. Essentially, it allows customers to use a combination of hardware and software to configure a multitude of disk drives in various configurations (for example, RAID 0, 1, 1+0, 5, and so on). Each numeric value represents mirroring, striping, parity striping, or a combination ("+").

Q. What RAID configuration can I use?

A. You may select any RAID configuration you would like to deploy. The reference configuration used has been set up as RAID 5+0 in the Cisco Transport Manager High Availability Installation Guide.

Installation and Support

Q. What maintenance contracts are required for a high availability configuration?

A. The maintenance contracts required are:

• External high availability support from third-party vendors (consists of support for Sun servers, Veritas software, and Oracle).

• Annual Cisco Transport Manager maintenance contract from Cisco

• Disk array support (EMC, Hitachi, and so on)

• Tape or system backup support

Q. What are the options for external high availability support?

A. You can obtain support from the individual third-party vendors mentioned previously, through joint support alliances, or rely on your own in-house expertise.

A. Yes. For installation on high availability servers, you need to purchase the standard Cisco Software Application Support (SAS) contract for Cisco Transport Manager, along with a high availability SAS. The minimum baseline joint support alliance contract is also required, but you can purchase higher levels of support-such as 2-hour hardware replacement, fly-to-site, priority queuing, and more-from each vendor.

Q. Because the Cisco Transport Manager High Availability Solution consists of two Sun servers, does this require the purchase of two copies of Cisco Transport Manager and two maintenance contracts?

A. No. Only the Cisco Transport Manager software and a single maintenance contract are required.

Q. Why has Cisco chosen to recommend outsourced support for my high availability infrastructure?

A. Because timely resolution of critical problems is best managed by those with the expertise to assist with these third-party products.

Third-Party Hardware and Software

Q. Can I deviate from the specified Sun Solaris and Oracle releases with Cisco Transport Manager in a high availability environment?

A. No. Cisco Transport Manager 8.5 has been validated on specific Solaris 10 and Oracle 10g releases, as specified in the installation guide. Deviation from the specified Solaris or Oracle release in the standalone or high availability architecture may cause problems that the Cisco TAC team would be unable to reproduce.

Q. What hardware release of Solaris is used in the high availability and standalone Cisco Transport Manager configurations?

A. Both have been validated with Solaris 10 11/06 OS.

Q. What software is required to run on the high availability configuration?

A. The software requirements for the high availability configurations are as follows:

Veritas Storage Foundation High Availability 5.0 for Oracle on Solaris

1 license per server

Veritas Volume Replicator 5.0

1 license per server

Veritas Cluster Server VVR Agent 5.0

1 license per server

Veritas Global Cluster Manager 5.0

1 license (with data-replication option) per site

Please contact your Veritas sales representative for more details on configurations and pricing of the Veritas Global Clustering solutions.

Q. What are the options for Oracle licenses?

A. You can pay Oracle based on the number of CPUs installed in your system or based on the number of named users. The Cisco Transport Manager 8.5 Standalone Installation Guide provides detailed information on the number of named users required. Full Oracle licensing is required for the primary Sun server; no additional Oracle licenses are required for the secondary Sun server. An Oracle sales representative can offer the best advice on exact licensing fees, based on your hardware configuration.

Q. Are extra Oracle named users licenses required with the data-replication option in the High Availability Solution?

A. As specified earlier, the Cisco Transport Manager 8.5 software used in the High Availability Solution is identical to the standalone Cisco Transport Manager 8.5 software. There are no extra named users or licenses needed to operate in a high availability configuration.

Q. What does Veritas Storage Foundation High Availability 5.0 for Oracle on Solaris consist of?

Q. Is Sun Cluster Server or Oracle Parallel Server part of the High Availability Solution?

A. No. There are a variety of ways that high availability can be deployed using a multitude of vendor software and hardware. The goal is to provide customers with an architecture that has been tested using Cisco Transport Manager High Availability Agent 2.3. Veritas was selected because it is a leading software high availability solution integrator and uses best-in-class Sun hardware and Oracle Relational Database Management System (RDBMS).

Failover

Q. What causes the secondary server to assume the role of the primary server?

A. The secondary server assumes the load of the primary server in the event of primary server failure. Essentially, a number of criteria parameters must be met for the high availability setup to determine that the primary server has failed. When the high availability setup has detected a failure, the primary system is shut down in an orderly sequence (assuming no system failures on the CPU, motherboard, and so on), and the secondary server activates all appropriate daemons, launches Oracle, activates the virtual IP, and restarts Cisco Transport Manager.

Q. What is the impact on the network in the case of a primary server failure?

A. Any alarms sent to the primary server when the systems are switching to the secondary server will be lost until Cisco Transport Manager resynchronizes with the network element and receives an updated alarm status. When the secondary Cisco Transport Manager server comes online, Cisco Transport Manager can synchronize either manually or automatically to every network element to obtain the latest alarm status.

Q. Will the secondary server toggle back to the primary server if the Cisco Transport Manager High Availability Agent detects a failure in the secondary server?

A. No. This requires a platform manager intervention and prevents the systems from toggling back and forth until someone investigates what caused the initial failover situation.